by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

A 29-year-old woman was charged with animal cruelty Wednesday for allegedly abandoning a 2-foot-long alligator at O'Hare International Airport in November, Chicago police said.

Alexis Prokopchuk, of suburban Oakbrook Terrace, told police Tuesday that she and her boyfriend took the 3-year-old American alligator from a friend who planned to flush it down the toilet, the Chicago Tribune reported.

But, for reasons still not fully explained, she took the reptile on a city train early Nov. 1, showing it to passengers, according to Chicago Transit Authority security footage. She arrived at the airport about 2:15 a.m. and then let the alligator go before catching a return train a half hour later.

Prokopchuk told police she was high on crack cocaine, heroin and unidentified pills at the time.

She was also charged with reckless conduct and ordered held on $5,000 bail. Another court date was set for Jan. 30.

A traveler on an escalator to the lower level of Terminal 3 spotted the alligator and notified a custodian, who called police. The gator was "very lethargic" and in poor condition from malnourishment long before it was abandoned, authorities said.

"It is very lucky to have been spotted and captured before the weather killed it," the society's Jason Hood said afterward.

The alligator, which rescuers dubbed Allie, "is still in quarantine in an isolation tank while it recovers," but "has started feeding on a regular basis finally," Hood wrote in an e-mail to USA TODAY on Wednesday.

"It appears like it will make a nearly full recovery," he said, although it is "still very skittish."

His organization planned to rehabilitate the gator and ship it to a facility in another state, presumably Florida or a southern neighbor, the normal habitat of the American alligator. They can grow to 4 feet long, and have the life expectancy of humans.

"One of the problems is they live so darn long," Hood told the Tribune in November. "When your child turns 18, you can throw him out the door, but this is America - you have to be a responsible pet owner.''

If you're in Chicago in April you'll have a chance to see Allie. Hood said Wednesday that the rescued alligator will be among the more than 200 species of reptiles and amphibians at the Herpetological Society's annual ReptileFest, April 12-13, at the University of Illinois-Chicago. It's the largest educational show of its kind in the country.